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OMT - Tottenham Hotspur v Westfield Stratford City

Not a vintage performance but given the injuries we have a good result considering this is one of our hardest fixtures of the season due to the superhuman efforts West Ham put in against us and Chelsea.
 
markysimmo said:
I have said this to my pals, I'm not going to win the league, I'm not going to beat City so go to win the Hammers game then you're only 3 games away from a final
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It's an interesting idea and maybe something I'd do in a football manager career, but Poch is never gona do that in real life.

We should however be well rested come the city game with only Jan missing, so stranger things have happened. Plus it's a night game at 'home' on a questionable playing surface.

We could claim an unlikely point and if the footballing gods are smiling on us, maybe even more.
 
I am worried about our general style of play. Not just in this game but really all season. I thought that under Poch we were developing an exciting identity - youthful, fresh, full of high intensity pressing, fast turnovers, quick transitions etc. We were excellent at this approach with a young hungry and largely untested squad.

This identity has largely been entirely missing this season. We are struggling in all departments. We hardly ever had long term injuries, we covered a whole lot more ground than our opponents and had a youthful vigour and endeavour of young men driving to prove themselves. We almost always ended games more strongly than other teams - certainly we didn’t against Wet Spam and even other games we were hanging on rather than taking the game to our opponent.

Now that we no longer have the youngest squad around and many of our team are now established internationals, I am concerned we no longer possess the hunger that characterised our early seasons under Poch.
 
Pirate55 said:
I am worried about our general style of play. Not just in this game but really all season. I thought that under Poch we were developing an exciting identity - youthful, fresh, full of high intensity pressing, fast turnovers, quick transitions etc. We were excellent at this approach with a young hungry and largely untested squad.

This identity has largely been entirely missing this season. We are struggling in all departments. We hardly ever had long term injuries, we covered a whole lot more ground than our opponents and had a youthful vigour and endeavour of young men driving to prove themselves. We almost always ended games more strongly than other teams - certainly we didn’t against Wet Spam and even other games we were hanging on rather than taking the game to our opponent.

Now that we no longer have the youngest squad around and many of our team are now established internationals, I am concerned we no longer possess the hunger that characterised our early seasons under Poch.
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We may not have the youngest squad around (although I’d guess we still do but haven’t checked) we do have the one that played the longest over all and the most games in the WC

dont under estimate the impact that had

Look at whose been injured too and the new ones are all players who played in the WC
 
Pirate55 said:
I am worried about our general style of play. Not just in this game but really all season. I thought that under Poch we were developing an exciting identity - youthful, fresh, full of high intensity pressing, fast turnovers, quick transitions etc. We were excellent at this approach with a young hungry and largely untested squad.

This identity has largely been entirely missing this season. We are struggling in all departments. We hardly ever had long term injuries, we covered a whole lot more ground than our opponents and had a youthful vigour and endeavour of young men driving to prove themselves. We almost always ended games more strongly than other teams - certainly we didn’t against Wet Spam and even other games we were hanging on rather than taking the game to our opponent.

Now that we no longer have the youngest squad around and many of our team are now established internationals, I am concerned we no longer possess the hunger that characterised our early seasons under Poch.
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It's been the same in the first four months of the season for the last few years. We'll click at some point in December but what is important is that we are picking up more points whilst playing brick this year.

If Emirates Marketing Project hit a (big) blip, I'd have us as favourites for the title ***ducks***
 
Bedfordspurs said:
We may not have the youngest squad around (although I’d guess we still do but haven’t checked) we do have the one that played the longest over all and the most games in the WC

dont under estimate the impact that had

Look at whose been injured too and the new ones are all players who played in the WC
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You may be right - and I hope you are! But I want to see us return to the Spurs way asap. Yesterday we were apparently desperately tired looking in the last 10-15 mins. We used to blow teams away in that phase of the game. I sincerely hope it is just down to WC hangover.
 
milo said:
It's been the same in the first four months of the season for the last few years. We'll click at some point in December but what is important is that we are picking up more points whilst playing brick this year.

If Emirates Marketing Project hit a (big) blip, I'd have us as favourites for the title ***ducks***
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Fingers crossed! From your keypad to Hods ears !
 
Pirate55 said:
You may be right - and I hope you are! But I want to see us return to the Spurs way asap. Yesterday we were apparently desperately tired looking in the last 10-15 mins. We used to blow teams away in that phase of the game. I sincerely hope it is just down to WC hangover.
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You can't play at that level all season. We are good at timing form for when it matters under Poch, what we've slipped up on is winning ugly early on.
 
Pirate55 said:
You may be right - and I hope you are! But I want to see us return to the Spurs way asap. Yesterday we were apparently desperately tired looking in the last 10-15 mins. We used to blow teams away in that phase of the game. I sincerely hope it is just down to WC hangover.
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Didn't look tired to me. I can't remember the spammers creating much in the last 15. Nothing like the Watford game. I think we managed the game reasonably well. There will always be moments of pressure when the home team needs a goal, but we weren't hanging on the ropes.
 
Good to continue our winning run. It was not really a convincing performance but the important thing was we won the match. Just wish we had scored more goals to kill the game off. It was really tense in the second half when West Ham had many chances to score. Was annoyed to see Pochettino taking off Lamela with 15 minutes to go. Just like the Inter Milan match, we became unsettled once Lamela went off. Thought Pochettino had learned from the Inter Milan match that we cannot afford to replace Lamela when we are only leading 1-0 as that will only unsettle us. Fortunately for us, Lloris pulled off many saves to stop West Ham.

Credit to Lamela for scoring our only goal and Sissoko for getting the assist. It was great to see Lamela continuing his goal scoring run and scoring on his first start in the league this season. It was a well-taken header by Lamela for the goal. He played really well and was unlucky not to get another goal as his shot was saved by the goalie. In contrast, Kane had a poor game and didn't do anything of note in the game apart from wasting his only goal scoring chance in the first half. Frankly Kane should have been replaced much earlier in the second half as he was a virtual passenger in this match. Moura played well with his dibbling skills and runs but disappointingly he didn't look like scoring yet again. Good to see Eriksen coming on late in the match but he didn't have much time to impress.

Our midfield had a decent match. West Ham were poor and didn't really trouble us much. But Dier, Winks and Sissoko did their part to stop West Ham. Still not fully convinced of Winks but he had a good game helping our attacks. Similiarly, Sissoko played well and deserved to get the assist for Lamela's goal. It shows what Sissoko can do if he can make a good pass for all his work rate and runs. Wish Sissoko will perform consistently for us from now. Even Dier had a a good match apart from his usual mistakes.

Well done to our defence for keeping our third consecutive clean sheet in the league. This is especially sweet considering Vertonghen was out injured. Lloris, Alderweireld and Sanchez did their part to help guard our goal. Credit to Lloris for making 3 or 4 brilliant saves to help us keep this clean sheet. Remember, Lloris are still unbeaten in the league so far this season as Vorm played in goal for both our defeats to Watford and Liverpool. Sanchez too should have scored from the chance he had when Lamela's shot was stopped by the goalie in the first half.

With this win, we have now won 4 consecutive league matches, making this our best ever start in the PL era with 21 points in 9 matches. We still need to improve our performance when we play the much stronger teams later. Let's hope we will have all our best players available for the upcoming tough matches against PSV in the CL and ManCity in the league.
 
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